THE ORCHARDS OF MINNETONKA. 339 
Long Lake. Here are one or two hundred trees, mostly Duchess, 
Wealthy and crabs, and a few interesting seedlings. This orchard 
is standing on a gentle south slope ona rather elevated hill and is 
open to the south and tothe west, but is protected on the north 
partly bya grove. Most of the trees look fairly healthy and are 
very profitable, this year’s crop amounting to two or three hundred 
bushels. 
About two miles west of this place, mainly on the north slope of 
a high hill, stands the orchard of the late Mr. C. W. Gordon, whom 
you will recall as a valued member of our society. It is now under 
the management of Mr. A. B. Coleman, a sonof Mrs. Gordon. There 
are several hundred trees in this orchard, mostly Wealthy and 
Duchess, perhaps fifteen years old, or thereabouts. It wasa sight 
to see the fruit still on the trees, and a large amount had already 
been gathered. The orchard was in grass, but it had evidently been 
ploughed in the spring. 
The last place visited that day was Mr. A. H. Brackett’s. This is 
a new place within sight of Lake Minnetonka, located on high and 
quite rolling ground. The berry plantations, covering a number of 
acres, were very thrifty and vigorous and showed the best of care, 
as did everything about the place. The fruit trees, of course, were 
too young to be an object of special interest. Mr. Brackett has 
done something in the way of irrigating a portion of his place 
with windmill and tank, and the fruit from the part irrigated has 
proved a valuable object lesson to him and his neighbors. It will 
pay any young horticulturist well to visit Mr. Brackett’s place and 
see the advantages of thorough cultivation. 
A second trip took me first to Excelsior, where in company with 
Mr. F. G. Gould, Mr. A. H. Brackett, Mr. D. V. Plant and Mr. Whitney 
of Long Lake, we visited a few of the orchards of this section. At 
the old Murray place, ona very high hill, one mile south of Excel- 
sior, we found an orchard of some two hundred trees, standing in 
sod on an eastern slope. The trees were in the main healthy and 
have borne this year a very heavy crop. The varieties are the usual 
ones for this section of the country, with the exception of some 
half dozen Haas, which seemed to be as hardy as the Wealthy and 
Duchess and were heavily loaded with large and highly colored 
fruit. This orchard was planted some twenty years ago. 
About half a mile north of this orchard is the home of Mr. E.S. 
Bardwell on the north slope of the same hill. Here is an orchard 
of several hundred trees left over from a nursery planted by Mr. P. 
G. Gould fifteen or twenty years ago. The finest Duchess apples by 
far that we saw were in this orchard, and the same can be said of 
the Wealthy, except they were not as highly colored on account of 
the closeness of the trees. These trees have borne a very Jarge 
crop of fruit this year. It was from this orchard that the bulk of 
the Duchess and the Wealthy were secured that were used in the 
Minnesota fruit exhibit at the New Orleans’ Exposition and also at 
the late World’s Fair. A peculiarity in the management of this 
orchard is accountable, I believe, for the large size of the fruit and 
the productiveness of the trees. It is suitably enclosed and used as 
